Université Jean Monnet

About Université Jean Monnet

Université Jean Monnet serves Saint-Étienne and the wider Loire area through four UJM campuses in Saint-Étienne and one in Roanne. Following the integration of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Saint-Étienne as a constituent establishment, the university describes itself as an établissement public expérimental. It remains an active public university offering programs from three-year undergraduate study through master’s and doctoral education. The institution’s official figures describe a university of about 20,000 students and 1,800 staff. Its academic structure includes five faculties, professional and technological institutes, a management school, an economics school, Télécom Saint-Étienne, graduate schools and six doctoral schools. This creates a broad choice for students who want a multidisciplinary public university rather than a narrowly specialized institution. UJM participates in the Lyon–Saint-Étienne higher-education ecosystem and the Transform4Europe alliance. Its campus model is strongly subject-based: humanities, law, economics and management are concentrated mainly around Tréfilerie; sciences and engineering use Manufacture and Métare; health teaching is centered on the Health campus; and Roanne supports technological and other programs. Applicants should therefore check the exact teaching location before comparing housing or commuting options. The university traces its origin to the University of Saint-Étienne, created on 27 March 1969. It adopted the Jean Monnet name in 1989. The later legal restructuring and architecture-school integration changed its institutional form but did not signal closure or the discontinuation of degree enrollment.

Admission is program- and level-specific; the university does not publish one institution-wide acceptance standard. Applicants should first identify the exact 2026-2027 program and entry year, then follow its official application route and academic prerequisites. Administrative registration occurs only after admission and is followed by pedagogical registration with the relevant faculty, school or institute. Procedures for IUT programs, Roanne and some medical study may be managed separately from the university’s central registration desk. For non-European applicants holding a foreign secondary-school qualification and seeking first-year licence entry in September 2026, the university’s 2026-2027 guidance requires the Demande d’Admission Préalable where applicable. The published deadline for that intake was 15 December 2025, so it has passed as of 20 August 2026. Applicants residing abroad generally use the diplomatic or Études en France procedure applicable in their country. For entry into the second or third licence year or Master 2, international applicants from Études en France countries use that platform; applicants outside that procedure use eCandidat. For Master 1, the university directs applicants to Études en France or the national master application route, depending on country. The university states that DAP files generally require French at B2, with C1 for specified programs. Exemptions can apply in defined circumstances. This is not a university-wide English-test policy: candidates for English-taught or bilingual programs should consult the individual program page for its own language evidence and selection criteria.

The 2026-2027 academic portfolio covers arts, literature and languages; humanities and social sciences; law, economics and management; science, technology and engineering; health; and architecture. Official figures list 27 licences, 10 university bachelor of technology programs, 10 professional licences, 45 master’s degrees, three engineering diplomas and 46 doctorates, alongside medical and other regulated awards. Students should use the current catalogue to confirm the available track, campus, entry year and award because admission and progression rules differ across these categories. The university’s licence, master and doctorate structure follows the French LMD framework. Professionally oriented options include BUT programs, engineering education, work-study routes and courses with internships. The 2026-2027 guide marks alternance availability for selected programs rather than across the entire university, so applicants seeking an apprenticeship format must verify it for the specific track and year. UJM reports 24 research units, including 17 joint units with CNRS and/or INSERM, and six doctoral schools. Research-linked study is visible in fields such as photonics, materials, artificial intelligence and connected systems, health, economics, law, humanities and social sciences. The thematic campuses place several laboratories alongside the relevant teaching units. French is the principal language of instruction. The 2026-2027 guide nevertheless identifies selected English-taught international master’s pathways, including programs in imaging and extended reality, photonics, vaccinology, machine learning, AI and connected systems, bioacoustics, and health-performance science. The guide explicitly labels teaching language, making it the appropriate source for checking whether an individual program is French-taught, English-taught or bilingual.

Key Highlights

• Public experimental higher-education institution with active 2026-2027 enrollment
• Approximately 20,000 students across five UJM campuses
• Founded in 1969 and known as Université Jean Monnet since 1989
• Member of the Transform4Europe university alliance

Student Life & Environment

Student services and activities are distributed across the Saint-Étienne and Roanne campuses. The university reports 60 student associations, 45 sports activities, five university libraries, and eight university restaurants or cafeterias. Associations include subject-based, cultural, social and representative groups, giving students routes into both campus projects and university governance. Cultural programming includes workshops, events and a university festival. Practical support includes a university health service, disability support, orientation and career services, and welcome activities for new and international students. The university’s mobile application provides personalized timetables, online-course access, campus maps, university email information and CROUS dining menus. International students can also use the Students Welcome Desk for guidance on matters such as accommodation, health, daily life and residence formalities. Housing is not presented as a single university-owned residential system. The official accommodation guidance instead points students toward CROUS public residences, private student residences, rooms with hosts, ordinary private rentals and the university’s Studapart partner platform. CROUS places and financial housing assistance are subject to eligibility and availability. Students should budget for a deposit, insurance and other tenancy requirements, and should confirm current rent directly with the residence or landlord before committing.

Location & Surroundings

The university is centered in Saint-Étienne in southeastern France, with another campus in Roanne. Its Saint-Étienne sites are not one enclosed residential campus. Tréfilerie is an urban, city-center campus for arts, humanities, social sciences, law, economics and management. Manufacture combines science and engineering teaching with laboratories, technology platforms, an incubator and a fabrication laboratory. Métare, near the Pilat area, hosts science and technology units in a greener setting, while the Health campus works alongside the Saint-Étienne university hospital and health-research organizations. The Roanne campus houses the local institute of technology, teaching spaces, a library, an innovation and entrepreneurship incubator, and an industrial-signals research laboratory. This multi-campus arrangement makes the program address an important decision factor: housing convenient for Tréfilerie may not be equally convenient for Métare, Health or Roanne. The university describes Saint-Étienne as approximately 45 minutes from Lyon and three hours from Paris. Students should verify the relevant transport mode and timetable for their travel dates rather than treating these figures as guaranteed journey times.

Costs & Career Outcomes

For 2026-2027, the university lists standard primary-registration fees of €178 for licence, BUT and licence professionnelle study, €255 for master’s study, €398 for doctoral study and €630 for an engineering diploma. These are annual registration charges, not a complete cost of attendance. Secondary registration has separate lower rates. Students may also face the national student-life contribution and program-specific or living expenses, which should be checked during registration. Fee treatment differs for some non-EU students. For 2026-2027, newly affected extra-community students outside the stated exemption categories are charged €2,902 for BUT, licence or licence professionnelle study and €3,950 for engineering study; the integrated engineering preparatory cycle is listed at €2,902. The university grants defined exemptions or partial exemptions to certain categories, including qualifying master’s students, exchange participants and some scholarship holders. Because status depends on nationality, previous enrollment, mobility arrangement and award level, international applicants should obtain a fee assessment for their own case. Accommodation costs are separate. The university points to CROUS residences, private residences, host accommodation and private rentals, but availability and quoted rents can change. Deposits and home insurance may be required, and housing aid is eligibility-based rather than automatic. Career preparation is organized through Cap Avenir and the university Career Center, which distribute internship, apprenticeship and job opportunities. Internships are embedded in some curricula and may be short or extend from two to six months depending on the year and program. No institution-wide salary or placement-rate claim was found, so applicants should consult program-level graduate-outcome surveys when comparing career prospects.